There are tens of thousands of Shopify apps.
Most of them promise to help you make more sales and boost conversions.
But which ones keep their promises? That’s a tough question.
…but we answered it anyway.
Only here. Only today.
Let’s get to it:
What you’ll learn
- Five conversion strategies to get inspired by
- Five apps you can use to implement them
With so many conversion tools available on Shopify, the possibilities seem endless. This post aims to simplify that process with a framework of conversion-focused apps.
This special stack of apps will turn your Shopify store into a powerful magnet for customers.
Let’s dive in.
Let existing customers do the selling for you (product reviews)
Step 1: While regular customer reviews are useful for merchants; product-photo reviews are often overlooked – presenting an excellent opportunity to stand out. What’s more, it creates additional social proof through authentic content.
Word-of-mouth marketing builds trust by showcasing the true experiences of existing customers.
It’s in our nature to connect and see what others like/do. About 90% of shoppers read product reviews before making a purchase online. eCommerce sites need to take advantage of the opportunity to feature images of products. This helps customers make informed decisions and minimizes the risk of purchasing something online. Interestingly, 38% of eCommerce retailers don’t allow customer review photos – a great way to set yourself apart from the competition.
You can improve your product’s trustworthiness and authenticity by having customers take visual reviews. Sadly, 60% of brand-created content fails to deliver. The solution might be as simple as allowing customers to contribute to content creation. Recent data suggests adding user-generated content to abandoned cart emails results in 6x higher conversion rates.
Vitals product photo reviews offer Shopify merchants flexibility when integrating reviews across their site. Choose from displaying reviews on a specific product page, a description tab, a homepage, or even a dedicated page.
Top product photo review tips
- Request a photo review from both new and existing customers
- Vary your product review photo placements. They have the potential to generate a ton of revenue for your brand, make sure their placement makes sense.
- Make sure your product is the star of the photo. This will help customers visualize what they could look like using your product.
- Couple this strategy with a social media strategy and share user-generated content to help increase trust.
How to use Vitals to request photo reviews
Enable this feature with one click, then do the following:
- Email timing: Decide when you want the email to be sent — for example, seven days after fulfillment.
- Order status: Choose when to email with the timing above. Either after the order is fulfilled or after the order was placed.
- GDPR compliance: Choose to send emails only to customers who have opted-in to receive marketing emails. If left unchecked, all customers will receive the emails.
- Customizing: change the email’s appearance and content.
- Email logo (link to the logo image)
- Email title (subject)
- Email greeting (hello, name)
- Email text (body of the email)
- Email ending (signature)
Regardless of how visitors find your store – via referral traffic, search engines, Facebook ads or Google ads – the core aim should always be to leave a good impression. High-quality imagery is crucial for giving people a clear idea of your products, but user-generated content is just as important. Use both together for the best results.
Increase conversions on not-in-stock products
Step 2: A typical eCommerce store will begin marketing products when stock arrives. What if you could do it before it arrives? What if a product could generate enough hype and revenue before it was released? That’s when pre-orders come in. Pre-ordering your products creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity that can increase sales.
Every Shopify store owner’s dream is to have loyal customers.
Improved customer retention leads to better customer experience and higher conversions.
Pre-ordering is a popular concept that allows you to profit from an item prior to its release. The video game industry, shoe industry, and apparel industry all use this strategy.
Pre-ordering gives consumers a sense of assurance and satisfaction. In addition to getting the product as soon as it becomes available, shoppers will often receive exclusive bonuses too (like early access to a game or bonus levels).
Pre-orders can help brands analyze sales data for future planning, evaluate demand, determine how successful a product may be, and build loyalty and anticipation among their customers.
By generating funds upfront, the brand has the ability to make intelligent decisions about how much stock to order and which color variants to produce.
The old adage, “build it, and they will come” doesn’t apply here. Established brands benefit from a strong brand identity – consumers ready for pre-orders. Smaller brands should integrate their pre-order strategy with existing marketing efforts to build awareness and interest in their product.
How to create excitement for your pre-order product
If you’re thinking about offering a pre-order for your product, you need to make sure that there’s demand for the product you intend to sell. Research to determine the price point for similar products or complementary products in your industry. The best way to use pre-orders is by providing incentives to get people to buy your product before it’s available.
Examples
PlayStation 5 has mostly been out of stock since it launched, but Sony sold as many PS5 in 12 Hours as PS4 Pre-Orders in 12 weeks in the US.
The revolutionary self-cleaning water bottle, Lark, initially sparked interest in its product through crowdfunding sites and social media. Their efforts to promote their new product and highlight the benefits resulted in a record-breaking $1.7 million raised before they shipped a single product.
Top pre-order tips:
- Don’t mark your product as sold out; use a pre-order Shopify app to alert customers about upcoming product launches.
- Consider using push notification apps.
- Collect customers’ email addresses to keep them updated along the way, ahead of the product’s availability.
- If possible, consider offering a discount or additional benefit for those who pre-order ahead of time to thank them for their patience and loyalty.
Gamify users’ experience to increase conversions (wheel of fortune)
Step 3: With social proof and the ability to generate hype around products, we can gamify the entire experience. This is a mutually beneficial offering that provides customers a sense of excitement and provides the brand with consumer email addresses for future contact.
Gamification, or game mechanics in a non-game context, allows eCommerce merchants to encourage repeat purchases, increase buyer loyalty, tap into experiential shopping, and influence purchasing patterns.
Fun and excitement stimulate consumers’ senses, resulting in strong brand recognition.
But a gamification app alone won’t immediately increase conversions; it needs to be coupled with the right offer.
Merchants and visitors benefit from incentive-based discounts. In order to encourage repeat visits, merchants collect visitors’ email addresses. With the Wheel of Fortune, you’re encouraging your visitors to make their first purchase through a fun, interactive experience!
With the right offers, even when someone doesn’t win, you can still connect with new customers and collect their email addresses for future email marketing.
Top gamification tips
- Consider whether there’s a possibility everyone could be a “winner”. By allowing one spin per customer and a guaranteed prize, there’s no reason anyone wouldn’t want to take part.
- Make sure the prize options are desirable. If visitors don’t care about your discount or prize, they won’t care if they win.
Increase average order value and increase conversions by using an upsell builder
Step 4: So far, we have created an environment where we can inform visitors about upcoming products, showcase happy customers and collect email addresses. This will make a big difference in conversions on your site. However, to achieve ultimate success with your business, you’ll also want to increase your customer’s average order value.
A higher average order value leads to greater conversion income. Upselling the right items at the right time increases customers’ average order value.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen cross-selling and upselling before, even if you don’t know what they are. Take an electric razor or a toothbrush, for example.
After buying the base unit, you’ll later buy other items such as replacement heads, shaving cream, or toothpaste. Cross-selling occurs when these add-on goods are offered alongside the main product at a discounted rate.
Upselling occurs when the value of an order changes. It’s like ordering fast food where you’re asked to upgrade your meal for an additional cost.
Product bundles allow eCommerce site owners to combine related goods and sell them as a set. Bundles of products can be used to target certain consumers or to raise the average purchase value.
Example
To assess how these tools affect merchants’ revenue, we looked at our assisted sales data.
This accessories store uses a small stack of Vitals apps, including the upsell builder.
It’s the perfect example of a targeted approach instead of a blanket-wide strategy with discounts on every product.
Use the Vitals upsell builder to grow your revenue.
If done correctly, upselling can increase the average order value. Often, businesses try to upsell customers the wrong products. As a result, both average order value and customer satisfaction can decline. Upsell strategies can include bundling products together, offering volume discounts.
Top tips for converting more using upselling tools
- Make sure your offering is clear.
- Bundled products should be related.
- Experiment with different upsell tools across products and categories to find a winning formula.
Capitalize on existing customers with compelling email offers
Pareto’s Law states that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. Creating appealing product pages and driving traffic to the site shouldn’t go unnoticed.
You can use the remaining 80% of the effort to target users who expressed interest and added products to the cart.
Reducing cart abandonment maximizes the return on investment.
Humans are naturally inclined to avoid spending money. This is why people often complain about “the pain of paying.” As eCommerce marketers, we strive to alter this pattern.
Buying decisions should be frictionless. The easier it is for visitors to buy, the more likely they are to become customers.
It takes time.
Your visitors may never return if you force them to buy when they’re not ready.
Create a frictionless purchase experience instead. In the absence of an immediate sale, collect their details and nudge them gently towards buying from you.
Educational resources, discount codes and rewarding customers for spending a certain amount on your products are just a few examples.
The five Shopify apps to increase conversions and boost sales
While the must-have Shopify apps will vary from store to store, we’ve outlined five apps any Shopify store owner can leverage to generate more sales and improve conversions.
To get started with this conversion-focused stack and increase customer purchases for your store, why not sign up for the free 30-day free trial offered by Vitals, and make use of these amazing apps:
- Upsell builder
- Pre-order
- Wheel of fortune
- Product photo reviews
- Goal Spend
Plus a lot more. Turning your Shopify store into a winning sales channel isn’t just about having the right apps but also using them in the right way.
The apps mentioned above benefit from seamless integration to your store and can be used with themes utilizing Shopify 2.0.